LOS ANGELES (January 6, 2010) – The Parents Television Council® is urging its members to file indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Fox’s “American Dad,” which featured a man masturbating a horse during the Sunday, January 3 episode. The program aired at 9:30 pm ET/PT and 8:30 pm CT/MT, which falls during the hours when indecent content is prohibited on broadcast television.

This episode also included graphic scenes of a character ripping a woman’s arm from its socket, and bleeped uses of the “f-word.” The program was rated aired TV-14 DLSV by Fox, meaning that in the network's opinion, this content was appropriate for 14-year-olds. The indecent scene can be viewed here: https://www.parentstv.org/ptc/action/AmericanDad1-3-10/Content.asp, and the text is as follows:

Roger has an injured arm, and tells Stan he must care for their racehorse.

ROGER: “You're gonna have to do the horse chores...You have to brush the horse's coat and mane, water and feed it, then give it a full release. You know, give it a happy photo finish. Take the glue out of the factory. Spank his front butt. Grant him a bone loan!”

Later, Stan strokes the horse’s side.

STAN: “Here we go. Just do me a favor and let me know when you're about to...you know.”

Stan bends down beneath the horse. The horse’s eyes go wide with surprise and pleasure. Stan is shown with fluid spraying in his face, implying that the horse has ejaculated on Stan. The camera pulls back to reveal that Stan is washing himself off with a hose.

“A broadcast television network aired an animated program on a Sunday evening when children were in the audience, and the program featured a man masturbating a horse. Up until now, I never imagined that those exact words could ever be spoken in that particular order. But sadly, here we are,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

“And at the very same time, the broadcasters and their hired mouthpieces are ranting in federal court about how the broadcast decency laws are ‘chilling’ the content they want to air.

“Under what definition of ‘contemporary community standards’ is the Fox broadcast standards department operating? The fact that this material even made it to air demonstrates the network’s contempt for families. It also demonstrates their complete and utter disregard for the terms of their broadcast licenses that allow them to deliver their programming and their advertisements into every home in America for free.

“The FCC must act on complaints about ‘American Dad’ and it must take swift action to break the backlog of 1.6 million indecency complaints from American citizens. As even more proof that it must adjudicate these complaints, the Supreme Court affirmed the FCC’s legal right to enforce the broadcast decency law just last year. The FCC has no reason to wait any longer, and we hope that FCC Chairman Genachowski will make good on his confirmation hearing promise to enforce the broadcast decency law.

“We also hope that the Second Circuit Court takes into consideration Fox’s broadcast of this indecent episode as it hears oral arguments next week in Fox v. FCC that involves the airing of the ‘f-word’ and ‘s-word’ during the Billboard Music Awards. Fox claims that these words were not indecent as it continues to air other explicit and indecent content on its network. It’s time for the broadcast decency law to be followed so that our children are protected.”

To speak with a representative
from the Parents Television Council, please contact Kelly Oliver
(ext. 140) or Megan Franko (ext. 148) at (703) 683-5004.

The Parents Television Council™ (www.parentstv.org®)
is a non-partisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment.
It was founded in 1995 to ensure that children are not constantly assaulted by sex, violence
and profanity on television and in other media. This national
grassroots organization has more than 1.3 million members across the
United States, and works with television producers, broadcasters,
networks and sponsors in an effort to stem the flow of harmful and
negative messages targeted to children. The PTC also works with
elected and appointed government officials to enforce broadcast
decency standards. Most importantly, the PTC produces critical
research and publications documenting the dramatic increase in sex,
violence and profanity in entertainment. This information is
provided free of charge so parents can make informed viewing choices
for their own families.

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